Page:Hands off Mexico.djvu/70

 the port of Tampico, or even maintain himself securely in any part of the oil fields.

THERE IS WHERE FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS COME IN.

In a signed statement, published in the New York Times, July 15, 1919, the Association of Oil Producers of Mexico announced that the oil men, "relying on the protection of their governments, refuse to submit to the coercion of confiscatory laws."

What reason had the oil men to believe that they could rely on the protection of their governments?

The same association answers in another signed statement, published in the Tribune (April 11, 1919):

"Against this constitutional precept (Article 27), and confiscatory decrees based on it, the American, French, British, and Dutch Governments lodged protests clearly characterizing the Mexican program as confiscatory. It was thereafter that the oil companies united to protect themselves against spoliation."

From which it would appear that the oil corporations started their rebellion only after being assured of the sympathy of their home governments.

From the testimony of Doheny, Beaty, and others, we learn that the Association for Protection of American Rights in Mexico was the outgrowth of a series of meetings held by oil men in New York, as a result of the decree of February 19, 1918, in which the Government of the United States called the attention of the Mexican Government "to the necessity which may arise to impel it to protect the property of its citizens in Mexico. ”

In his testimony Mr. Doheny refers to "the dispute between the oil companies and the United States Government, on the one hand, and the Mexican Government, on the other." Other oil men mention the issue in similar terms. Finally (Page 267) Mr. Doheny testifies that the oil companies refused to comply with the decree of February 19, 1918, “with the consent and approval, and at the suggestion, of our own State Department."

Which would seem to convict the Wilson Administration of being the determining factor in the launching of the oil corporations' rebellion against the Mexican Government.

In the communication of April 11, the Association of Oil Producers of Mexico also said: